The inventive subject matter relates to drive circuits and methods for semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to circuits and methods for driving current-controlled semiconductor devices.
Current-controlled semiconductor devices typically include a PN junction as a controlling terminal. Examples of such devices include thyristor-type devices such as silicon-controlled rectifier (SCRs), TRIACs and gate turn-on devices (GTOs), as well as diodes, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and junction field-effect transistors (JFETs).
Conventionally, such devices may be driven by simple linear circuits, such as a voltage source in series with a resistor. They also may be driven by a linear regulator that regulates a voltage over a known sense resistor. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional technique for driving an SCR 10, in which a driver circuit 20 drives a control terminal of the SCR 10 via a resistor R.